this morning, the fight over impeachment witnesses appears to be ramping up. republican sources say they have enough votes to block any testimony meaning the trial could wrap up as soon as friday. meanwhile, the president's legal team is offering a blanket defense against impeachment in at least one argument, trump's lawyers claim that quid pro quo, even if proven, wouldn't be grounds for impeachment, and the white house says john bolton's book can't be published as is. the national security council claims his manuscript contains a significant amount of classified information.

good thursday morning, everybody. it is january 30th. i'm yasmin vossoughian. and ayman mohyeldin is on assignment. we begin with uncertainty on capitol hill. ahead of the vote expected tomorrow on whether to call witnesses at the impeachment trial. republican sources are telling nbc news they expect to have enough votes to block senate testimony. with democrats possibly coming up one vote short of the four republican votes needed. yesterday, two vulnerable senators up for reelection, cory gardner and martha mcsally said they would vote against calling new witnesses. senator pat toomey of pennsylvania who proposed trading one republican witness for a democratic witness says he's quote very skeptical that any new testimony would change his mind. mitt romney says he is a definite yes. susan collins says she will likely vote yes and lisa murkowski who met privately with mitch mcconnell yesterday

refused to share her own personal thoughts, despite saying tuesday she may want to hear from john bolton. another senate republican to watch is lamar alexander. he has expressed concern over the hold up of military aid. he's retiring after this term, and a former chief of staff telling nbc news quote this, you can't predict him. if the senate votes for no witnesses, we are told mcconnell will immediately call for a final vote meaning the impeachment proceedings could end tomorrow with a likely acquittal for the president. here's the democratic leader in the senate, chuck schumer. >> we have won over the american people and so our republican colleagues at least some of them realize that if they are to reject witnesses and documents, they're going against not just a small group or not just democrats, but against the whole grain of america. and they know that they may be held accountable to that. so i hope we can get witnesses and documents. it's an up hill fight.

is it more likely than not, probably, no but is it a decent good chance, yes. >> ahead of the senate debate over impeachment witnesses, we have a morning consult politico poll that shows six in ten americans believe the president should not use executive privilege to block new testimony from witnesses in the impeachment trial. over 50%, 57 to be exact of registered voters said trump should not invoke executive privilege to prevent witnesses such as former national security adviser john bolton from testifying. 26% said he should be allowed. and senators will continue grilling democratic prosecutors and president trump's defense team when the question and answer portion of the impeachment trial resumes this afternoon. but during yesterday's questioning, senate democrats became incensed at one of the arguments made by the white house defense team. deputy council pat philbin claimed it is in the president's rights to ask a foreign

government for information about a political rival as long as the information is credible. democrats, though, were quick to respond to that. >> congress has specified specific ways in which foreigners cannot be involved in elections. foreigns can't vote in elections, there are restrictions on foreign contributions to campaign. mere information is not something that would violate the campaign finance laws and if there is credible information, credible information of wrong doing by someone who is running for a public office it's not campaign interference for credible information about wrong doing to be brought to light. if it's credible information. so i think that the idea that any information that happens to come from overseas is necessarily campaign interference is a mistake. >> this body should not accept nor should the american people accept the idea put out by the

president's lawyers today that it is perfectly fine, unimpeachable for a president of the united states to say, hey, russia, or hey ukraine, or hey, china, i want your help in my election. because that's the policy of the president. we're calling that policy now. it's the policy of the president to demand foreign interference and withhold money from an ally at war unless they get it. that's what they call policy. i'm sorry, that's what i call corruption. and they can dress it up in fine legalese but corruption is still corruption. >> i could not abide the president's counsel saying foreign interference in a sense is okay if it hasn't fallen to the classic definition of a campaign contribution, and the whitewash doj investigation somehow makes anything and everything the president has done in terms of soliciting

foreign interference legitimate. the president's counsel tonight in a sense gave a green light for that kind of behavior to continue. i hope and pray that cooler heads will prevail, but i think there was a dramatic step backwards in terms of protecting the integrity of our election. >> there were audible gasps on the democratic side when the president's counsel tried to claim that it's proper for anyone running for office in the united states to take information from a foreign country. >> then there was impeachment defense attorney alan dershowitz arguing yesterday that there was no fault until the president's interest in hunter biden because of joe biden's candidacy for president saying that there would be no issue if the president had called foreign investigation of burisma while in his second term. take a listen to this. >> the argument has been made that the president of the united states only became interested in corruption when he learned that joe biden was running for

president. let's assume hypothetically that the president was in his second term and he said to himself, you know, joe biden's running for president, i really should now get concerned about whether his son is corrupt because he's not only a candidate and he's not running against me, i'm finished with my term, but he could be the president of the united states and if he's the president of the united states and he has a corrupt son, the fact that he's announced his candidacy is a very good reason for upping the interest in his son. if he wasn't running for president, he's a has been. he's the former vice president of the united states. okay. big deal. but if he's running for president, that's an enormous big deal, so the difference the house managers would make is whether the president is in his first term or his second term, whether he's running for reelection or not running for ree elect reelection, i think they would

have to concede if he was not running for reelection. if he is running for reelection, suddenly that turns it into an impeachable offense. >> joining me onset, msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, political reporter for the hill, julia manchester. thank you both for coming in, especially you danny, considering the fact that you were just on television two hours ago. i had no sleep. i hope you can get through this one. >> i slept in your office. thank you for that. >> we just heard some of white house counsel's pat philbin saying that the president can ask a foreign power for help against a political rival so long as the information is in fact credible. pretty astounding, i think for a lot of people that were listening to this defense strategy. what do you make of it? >> i am struggling with this. as a defense attorney i'm trying to find some legitimacy in it, and the challenge is that statement is possibly correct, and i say possibly because you can imagine a universe where a

president is asking a foreign power for help against someone who's a political rival in the sense that he's staging a coup, driving tanks down mainstream. that might be acceptable. >> even if it serves your own personal interest. >> that's the point. and that's the point alan dershowitz is trying to make, if you have a mixed motive situation where there's a political rival who's also doing bad things, in other words, you shouldn't give the political rival a force field of immunity simply because they are the political rival, and i think that's the direction the president's attorneys are trying to drive, and it isn't effective. and that argument that asking for help of a foreign power, number one, that's been somewhat debunked because there have been more appropriate avenues to go to, for example, the doj, the cia maybe even, but not getting on the phone and just asking that person directly, and then the other part too is that if the information is credible is

assuming quite a bit because there's been a lot of evidence that the information wasn't credible. >> and didn't launch an investigation when they had control of the senate. >> and it was also so palpably obvious that it was only because it was a political rival. but the president's attorneys are trying to argue essentially in the negative saying that hey, just because someone's a political rival, shouldn't mean they are cloaked in immunity from wrong doing. >> i want to talk about alan dershowitz's arguments yesterday, especially about the point he tried to make with regards to the president serving a national interest, not necessarily a personal interest here, in crying to create a defense in that way, saying it is of the national interest, of the good of americans that this president was doing this because he is running for reelection. he believes he is a good president and it would serve them well to have him reelected. >> alan dershowitz is an

effective criminal app last tel lawyer. his arguments makes your mind go through these mental gymnastics but it's not effective to an audience of the american people watching an impeachment trial when you suddenly pivot from the defense's theme the entire team, which has been none of this happened and even if it did, you know, it's okay, it's within the president's power. now, alan dershowitz is conceding the possibility that, hey, there may have been these really bad motives, but that would be okay, even if he acting with his own personal interests. >> he's been consistent about that being his line of defense for the most part. >> he has, and so it goes back to the mixed motive theory, which i have thought for weeks of months this entire controversy would come down it, and it's this. suppose the president has 1% motive to help the country and 99% motive to help himself personally, politically, is that acceptable. alan dershowitz would argue that it is, but the american people would never accept that kind of

break down. >> julia, thanks for being patient and standing by for us. a majority of americans are saying the president should not invoke executive privilege to block witnesses from testifying, if in fact, they vote to allow witnesses that is going to be the first hurdle in all of this. do you think that that's impacting republican senators in any way, especially senators collins, romney, and murkowski in considering their vote. >> absolutely yasmin. i would say it actually impacts collins the most because we're actually seeing that collins is facing a very up hill reelection bid in her home state of maine, and she's very much trying to walk this fine line in this impeachment trial basically trying to appease two sides. so it will be interesting to see how she really goes about this because she's obviously under pressure from democrats in her own state and independent voters as well. for murkowski and romney, i think it also impacts them as well. i think romney obviously is very

much on board in terms of, you know, voting to call witnesses and such. murkowski is curious, and we've seen that she has been very critical of the presidential, so i think it definitely does put these three senators really on notice in calling for that. >> you can't help but wonder what was said between leader mcconnell and susan murkowski and lisa murkowski, excuse me, in that private meeting for 30 minutes. danny cevallos, julia manchester, thank you both. i appreciate it. i'm going to talk to you again in a little bit. so stay close. still ahead, president trump launches an attack against former national security adviser john bolton and a democratic congressman comes to his defense. plus, how former vice president and 2020 candidate joe biden is getting ready to take on trump in iowa today. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. n your weather when we come back

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bolton remove classified information from that upcoming book before it is published. in a letter to bolton's lawyer, dated on january 23rd, a national security council aide wrote in part this, the manuscript appears to contain significant amounts of classified information. it also appears that some of the classified information is at the top secret level. the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information. now, the letter was received days before "the new york times" first reported on the contents of a manuscript of bolton's book. in response, bolton's lawyers rejected the white house's attempts to sensor and claim that none of the information included is in fact considered classified. he added that bolton is quote preparing to testify at the impeachment trial and that he would likely discuss some of the material contained in a chapter of his book on ukraine. bolton's lawyers have yet to hear back from the white house. and trump's defense team has painted john bolton as a quote

disgruntled former employee as "the new york times" points out, the trump administration has acknowledged that national security council staff members reviewed a draft of bolton's book and briefed white house counsel pat cipollone on its contents but you wouldn't know that from listening to trump's lawyers on the senate floor just yesterday. >> no one from inside the white house or outside the white house told us that the publication of the book would be problematic for the president. i think we assumed that mr. bolton was disgruntled and we didn't expect he was going to be saying a lot of nice things about the president, but no one told us anything like that. >> so meanwhile, the president tweeted yesterday quote why didn't john bolton complain about this nonsense a long time ago when he was very publicly terminated. he said, not that it matters, nothing. so then there was this major development, congressman elliot engel is refuting president trump's claims and said john

bolton urged him to examine the ousting of former ambassador to ukraine months ago. the new york democrat claims he spoke to bolton on the phone days after his september firing and that bolton quote suggested to me unprompted that the committee look into the recall of ambassador marie yovanovitch. he strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal as our top diplomat in kiev. congressman engel informed house investigators of that conversation. the next day, house speaker pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry. here's what engel had to say about the timing of his revelation as calls for bolton to testify are growing louder. >> when i heard that the president was saying that mr. bolton never indicated anything beforehand, i thought it was time for me to go public. we wanted him to come to testify before us way back when. i thought he should have done it, and i think he should do it

now. i shared it with all the people that were investigating. still ahead, vanessa bryant makes her first public remarks since sunday's helicopter crash that killed her late husband kobe bryant and gianna. how she's remembering them both, next. mbering them both, next you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not mad because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading commission free today. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading 1917 has been nominated including best cinematography, best director, and best picture of the year.

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three surviving daughters are devastated. in an instagram post, she thanked the people who have showed their support. there aren't enough words to describe our pain right now. i take comfort in knowing that kobe and gigi know they were so deeply loved. she goes on to say this, we wake up each day trying to keep pushing because kobe and our baby girl gigi are shining on us to light the way. our love for them is endless and that's to say immeasurable. bryant called kobe an adoring husband and amazing father, and described gianna as loving, thoughtful and a wonderful daughter. both kobe and gianna died in a helicopter crash near los angeles on sunday that killed seven other people as well. okay. let's take a breath. switch gears, and get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. just reading that over and over. i read if for the first time last night as i was trying to go

to sleep. and it's just. >> you know she's still in shock and showing appreciation for all the outpouring of love. >> you just can't even imagine what it is like to be in her position or the position of all the other families who lost someone on that day. >> and how strong she has to be for her daughters. >> the three remaining daughters she has. yeah. >> incredible. >> we wish them the best. >> our thoughts and prayers are with them. >> hopefully they'll all have great successful lives. let's talk about what's going to happen as we walk out the door today. all week long we were saying possibly this northeast storm looks like maybe we could get some snow. it's going to be a close call. now it looks like it's going to be out to sea. it looks like the northeast avoids another snowstorm this winter. it hasn't been a winter for snow. it's been too warm most of the time, and when we have had storms, they haven't been taking the right track. this is out to sea. rain overnight, we're clearing it out. last area holding down rain is myrtle beach and the wilmington area, and that will soon be gone. that storm system is going to be

exiting. thatst n that's not going to be a problem. that storm system is now pushing through areas of northern nevada, heading for the central portions of the rockies, and it's going to bring snow in areas like provo and salt lake city. leaving this morning to the great lakes and northeast, it's been mild the last couple of mornings. today is not one of them. the windchill is brutal, 8 in buffalo, 8 in vermont. boston feels like 14. new york city is in the 20s. if you head out the door, grab the hat and gloves and the winter coat. and today's forecast, it's about as quiet as it gets, looks nice in areas of florida, no problems in the middle of the country. it's not until we get to friday that we see a new rainstorm beginning in areas from the gulf. that will head towards the southeast on friday. that's the storm that could have been the nor'easter but instead it's just going to be a big snowstorm for nova scotia and snow showers in the great lakes, and for super bowl sunday,

incredible warmth, kansas city, i'm not sure how you're going to do in the actual game but 63 and sunny to start your february. sounds like a winning forecast to me. you've got your super bowl plans in the afternoon and evening, and during the day, mid-60s. >> outside, enjoying it, right, throwing the ball around a little bit to get prepared, warm up. thank you, bill. still ahead, with the iowa caucuses just days away, we're taking a look at new polling that shows two candidates in a dead heat. >> and more of the president's blanket defense against impeachment, including the argument that quid pro quo is not impeachable even if it in fact happened. we'll be right back. even if it fact happened. we'll be right back. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) ozempic® does not increase

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welcome back. i'm yasmin vossoughian. ayman mohyeldin is on assignment this morning. we begin this half hour with more from yes's question and answer portion of the impeachment trial, and advancing an extensive view of executive power, alan dershowitz, one of the president's impeachment defense attorneys argued that any action taken by the president to help his own reelection is in fact in the public interest. >> there are three possible motives that a political figure can have, one, a motive in the public interest, and the israel argument would be in the public interest. the second is in his own political interests and the third which hasn't been mentioned would be in his own financial interests. i want to focus on the second one for just one moment. every public official that i know believes that his election

is in the public interest. and mostly you're right. your election is in the public interest. and if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. we may argue that it's not in the national interest for a particular president to get reelected but for it to be impeachable, you would have to discern that he or she made a decision solely on the basis of as the house managers put it, corrupt motives and it cannot be a corrupt motive if you have a mixed motive that partially involves the national interest, partially involves electoral and does not involve personal pecuniary interests. >> in every criminal case and i would assume in every

impeachment case, yes, you have to show that the president was operating from a corrupt motive and we have. if we're to interpret the constitution now as saying that a president can abuse their power, and i think the professor suggested before the break that he can abuse his power in a corrupt way to help his reelection and you can't do anything about it. you can't do anything about it. because if he views it as in his personal interest, that's just fine. he's allowed to do it. none of the founders would have accepted that kind of reasoning. >> so during question time, republican senator mitt romney asked white house counsel patrick philbin to give a specific date for when the president withheld military aid to ukraine. philbin failed to specify. here's his full response. >> question from senator romney is for the counsel to the president. on what specific date did

president trump first order the hold on security assistance to ukraine and did he explain the reason at that time? >> i don't think that there is evidence in the record of a specific date, the specific date. but there is testimony in the record that individuals at omb and elsewhere were aware of a hold as of july 3rd, and there is evidence in the record of the president's rationales from even earlier than that time. >> so as democrats try to make the case for more witnesses, they are seizing on one moment in particular, when both sides were asked what john bolton meant when he referred to the ukraine scheme as a quote drug deal. watch this. >> now, we know of course from other documents and testimony about the quid pro quo, about the white house meeting. and all the efforts by giuliani to make sure that the specific informations are mentioned in order to make this happen.

but don't take my word for it. we can bring in john bolton and ask him exactly what he was referring to when he described the drug deal. >> the question asks about what ambassador bolton meant in a comment that is reported as hearsay by someone else saying what he supposedly said. what we know is that there are conflicting accounts of the july 10th meeting at the white house. dr. hill says that she heard ambassador sondland say one thing. he denies that he said that. dr. hill says she went and talked to ambassador bolton, and bolton said something to her about what was said in the meeting that he wasn't there, but was saying something about it calling it a drug deal, and what he meant by that, i'm not going to speculate about. >> not giving an answer that. joining me onset, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos, and political reporter for "the

hill" julia manchester. i'll start with you on this one. let's talk about pat philbin's comments, helping to fuel the witnesses to testify. do you think that's what's happening here? >> the defense counsel, you can see this is a situation where you have a bad set of facts and krour you're in a tough argument, and you can see him thinking about it as he's going through it, trying not to get in more trouble. >> and being careful about the words. >> very careful. the defense doesn't want to add any fuel to any fire. they're in a tricky situation. they need to defend the president but not add any facts into the record that could possibly fuel the call for more witnesses, so their position is going to be eventually or now that the bolton testimony wonwo anything because who cares if the callhe called it a drug deal. everything they allege that bolton may have said adds to the position that even if there was

a quid pro quo, or a questirequ doesn't matter. all of these things fall under the ages of what the president can do as part of his article ii powers. that's where they're going. >> do you think they're so worried about the testimony of john bolton to not have him testify because he could feasibly reveal other things in addition to what has been revealed to the "new york times" report in regards to the manuscript. >> that's exactly what i think. the i think the mere fact that he would explain the drug deal or president trump told him that the aid or the demands were tied to investigating his political opponent is something that they have essentially conceded. the fact that john bolton is the only precip yent witness who may have heard this request by the president doesn't really change the calculus of the defense team's mission. even if he testified to only just that, i think their mission would still be the same. what they're afraid of is the pandora's box he could open if they testify. >> let's not forget, we have so many senate republicans on the record when john bolton was

first being appointed as national security adviser saying that john bolton is a credible guy. he is a stand up guy. >> yeah, this is very awkward for a lot of these senators, you know, it's interesting. we've heard a lot of them in the halls of capitol hill essentially saying, yes, i like john bolton but i don't believe him or there's an issue with his account, and it's actually kind of creating an even more awkward situation. i would say on fox news where john bolton was a contributor on fox news for so long, and now you're seeing so many opinion hosts on that show very much turn against him. it really shows how much influence president trump has over republican lawmakers and you know, the republican, i would say, establishment, really right now. so we'll have to see, you know, where they go on this, but it seems that at this point republicans appear to believe they have the votes to block witnesses and that would include john bolton as well. >> julia, let's talk about the question with regards to the

timing with the freeze on the aid of ukraine. do you think the white house counsel's failure to give specifics on that timing as to when that aid was actually withheld, do you think that's hurting their case? >> i think it certainly does in the court of public opinion. remember, timing is very important in all of this as to, you know, when this happened, in terms of, you know, the time line of the election, and how it tied to the election. remember, democrats are very much trying to tie the freezing of this aid to, you know, trying to investigate vice president biden and essentially in a way the election, and the republicans are arguing that this isn't related to the election, so i would say timing is very important, and not enough details could be negative in the court of public opinion but in terms of republican senators who will have to vote ultimately on this issue, i don't really think it impacts the majority of them. >> i want to talk a little bit more, danny, about the whole idea that alan dershowitz

brought up saying basically the president was running for the public interest in running for reelection to president, and i'm a little bit obsessed with it because there's so much gray area there, basically you're saying when you're running for president of the united states it's not in your own personal interest, it is only for the person public, it is only for the good of the united states, and you're fooling yourself to think that anybody that runs for the president of the united states is not at all doing it for any personal motive, any personal reason. >> this is a classic law professor hypothetical taken to its extreme, and i said this before, it gets law students thinking really hard but it doesn't really sit well with the public because he's saying as long as you are in the place of the public interest, if a president subjectively believes that his election is in the public interest, therefore that justifies doing virtually anything and it's not considered corrupt. it's an interesting academic argument but these are real life facts and they're not going to

play well probably with either side, and that's evidenced by the fact that it's been a very controversial line of argument over the last 24 hours. >> danny cevallos thank you, julia manchester, thank you as well. still ahead, everybody, new polling showing 2020 democrats joe biden and bernie sanders in a virtual dead heat in iowa as the former vice president is expected to address voters there today ahead of next week's caucuses. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. rning joe" is back in a moment. he's a systems quarterback.

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it automatically compares your current loans and credit card payments to their network of lenders and shows you where you can cut your monthly bills. download it now to check your financial health and see how much you can save. welcome back, it is the final stretch leading up to the iowa caucus, and presidential candidate joe biden is preparing a late stage speech that is set to happen right before a trump rally the president has planned in iowa. biden is going to make the speech today in the hawk eye state which is expected to be an uplifting one and will discuss the importance of character in the democratic nominee. the former vice president will make a direct rebuke of the

senate impeachment trial where president trump's legal team has repeatedly invoked his name along the speech, the biden campaign released an ad promoting the character. >> it said in here, your character is revealed. we saw it with president obama. we're seeing it with president trump. but it's in life where your character is formed. where you're from, who you grew up with, and who you love. how you've been tested and what you've overcome. how you step up when the moment demands it, and what you do when the cameras are off. where you've led, what you've done, and what you'll never stop working to do, who you stand

with, and who you fight for. character matters. maybe more here than anywhere. >> seems that ad trying to get to the heart of who the former vice president is, and joe biden and senator bernie sanders are in a dead heat in iowa just days before voters will caucus for their choice for the democratic party's nominee. the newest monmouth university poll showing biden at 23%, down one point since earlier this month. sanders at 21 is up three, statistically tied for first place. both candidates are sitting within the poll's over 4 point margin of error and former mayor pete buttigieg has 16%, down one point, followed closely by senator elizabeth warren with 15%, senator amy klobuchar is at 10%, as you can see, up 2 points and tom steyer remains at 4%. meanwhile, just under half. 47% of iowa's lookly democratic caucus goers are firmly decided on who they are going to

support. 45% said they are still open to backing another candidate. let's switch gears get a check on your weather once again with nbc meteorologist bill karins. hard to believe it's almost here. >> hard to believe, and not hard to believe either. it seems like it came fast and furious and we just had an election two seconds ago, and then you think, gosh, this election season has been so long. >> this weekend is february, and that puts us only a week away, a month away from super tuesday in march. >> full steam ahead. let's dig into the forecast. we have been talking all week long about the potential for the storm. rainfall in the east, strong thunderstorms friday night, and there's a ton of super bowl parties and stuff going on. keep that in mind anyone that's enjoying that down there. areas of the carolinas will be getting rain as we go throughout friday evening. by the time with get to saturday, though, the storm heads off the coast. it only misses areas from cape cod and boston by about 2, 300 miles. that makes a world of

difference. novembuaa scotia is going to ge hard, and newfoundland, and the northeast should be fine on your saturday and by sunday, the storm system continues to pull away behind it. there will be a brief period of light know it looks like in northern new england, and that's really about it. the snow forecast where, you know, looked like we were ready to get brushed or grazed now shows no snow once again from d.c. to philadelphia. both locations have under an inch for this winter. barely anything at all. and it's only been about 4 to 5 inches in new york city. we'll get a little bit of snow western new york, and a little bit northern new england, northern michigan the next couple of days. nothing that's going to cause significant travel concerns. the actual story as we head through february will be the warmth. today a quiet day, great day, airport traveling, travel on the road, not a lot of snow. not a lot of rain. as we go towards friday, we notice a huge warm up in the westment monta west. montana has a chance of getting in the 60s. not bad everywhere else. as we head into the weekend,

spring like warmth for the ground hog in the middle of the country. areas like dallas, 73 degrees. wichita, kansas, super bowl sunday, kansas city has a high of 60 degrees and sunny, so i mean, no complaints there, and areas of the east are pretty good too. denver, by the way, if i had to be anywhere, 66 and sunny on saturday, nearly 70 degrees on sunday. >> who needs a ground hog when you have climate change. i think we know what's happening. >> it's been about a top ten warm january for so many locations across the country, and february is starting out the same way. >> it kind of throws you off in general. >> it makes it difficult to know what to put in the closet and what to buy. retail sales for winter clothes have been bad. >> thank you, bill. rising fatalities in china as the coronavirus spreads across east asia while here in the united states new numbers show for the first time in four years, an increased in life expectancy. what's helping americans live longer, coming up next. what's helping americans live

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snee. welcome back. the number of corona cases in china outnumbered the entire number of infections that country saw during the entisars cases in 2003. 7,711 cases recorded.

all but seven recorded in mainland china. china reported 170 people died from the virus up from 132 wednesday. officials believe the actual number of deaths is much higher than recorded. today india and the philippines recorded their first cases and tibet said all those exposed to the outbreak. so far 19 locations outside of china recorded at least one case of the coronavirus. scientists in china, the u.s. and australia are racing to develop a vaccine for the virus. experts expectto take up to a year. in government numbers showing life expectancy for americans increase from 78.6 years to 78.7 in 2018 according to the cdc. researchers cite a drop in cancer deaths and notably, the first decline in deaths from drug overdoses in almost 30 years. there was, however, a slight

increase in the suicide rate. something researchers say policymakers should address for almost all ages. coming up next, axios' "one big thing," and on "morning joe," that it was okay ukraine sought help for dirt on joe biden and that the president did nothing wrong if he withheld military aid for political investigations. plus one of the other impeachment prosecutors jason crow will be our guest. "morning joe" is moments away.

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learn more at the explorer card dot com. joining us from washington way look at axios a.m., co-founder of axios mike allen. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> talk to us about ax otherwise' "one big thing" today. >> axios' "one big thing" is mcconnell's end game. yesterday on "first look" a republican source told us that mcconnell always has a card up

his sleeve and it looks like he's about to play that card. axios selena treene in the senate chamber throughout the trial spent all day talking with republicans saying republicans are increasingly optimistic they're going to avoid witnesses. he said earlier this week they weren't sure. some people were waffling after that new information came out about bolton, but you grab senators in the hall and, of course, a lot harder to grab them now than it is normally. i was up there and all the senators are racing past you because they know what you want, but when you grab senators, especially the republican senators who are up for re-election, they're saying, we've heard what we need to hear. and so the trump message that bolton's disclosures in his upcoming book don't change anything that seems to be taking with the republicans who are going to determine the outcome

of this vote. >> i actually am curious, mike. which senators are the ones racing part and which are the ones that linger and are willing to give you a little tidbit? >> yeah. so the senator who raced past me in particular was senator mitt romney. by coincidence, we were in the senate office building. i've covered senator romney for a decade or more, and usually stops to chat. not this time. and you've seen up there your nbc and msnbc reporters often behind ropes, which are new, of course, conservative twitter talks about the journos and pens. a little true than we would like to be the case. >> talk about the iowa caucus. that shapping amidst all the senate impeachment trial stuff. we are in the final days of campaigning before these iowa caucuses. what is axios learning with regard to the issues that matter

most to people in iowa? >> this is a fascinating data point. a little window into iowans making such a big statement just four days from now are thinking about their vote. so "first look" viewers, remember in 2018, in the midterms, both parties will tell you that the decisive issue was health care. that's the reason that speaker pelosi is speaker pelosi. google trends is out with data from iowa and can tell who's searching where and find in iowa people who are searching for the seven democratic candidates who will be in the next debate, so the top tier, people are searching for them. the most common terms they search along those names are health care and abortion. interestingly enough look at social security, the three on the national stage for the longest time, biden, warren and -- biden warren and sanders. they're searched with social

security. the younger candidates or the candidates running for the first time including buttigieg and klobuchar, yang, steyer, those are searched along with climate. >> all right. mike allen. thank you. reading axios a.m. in a little bit. sign up for the newsletter at signup @axios.com. that does it for me on this thursday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. we do have people that work so hard and senators, and make i'm being nice to them because i want their vote. does that make sense? senator marsha blackburn. where's marsha? john bozeman, thank you. mike braun, become a big fixture on television and doing a great job. west virginia, great